Just a general statement. I sometimes take a peek at sites such as Metacritic and many of the user reviews are just depressing. Like, say a game got a 68/100. Far from great, but it got decent reviews. No matter what game it is, there will be users who hand out 10s and claim the reviewers don't know what they're talking about. I guess it's because they feel reviews exist to tell them they have great taste and when their opinion doesn't overlap with that of the avarage reviewer, they think they need to show the world how they are right and everyone else is wrong. Which is silly, of course, because there is nothing wrong with liking a game that got decent reviews. It's totally okay to enjoy something that didn't receive 9s and 10s and say to yourself, well, this has its flaws, but I had a good time.
I also don't like this reasoning - "If you enjoy that part so much you're able to ignore the flaws and enjoy the game" because "flaws" might not actually be "flaws" depending on the experience/preferences of each person(difficulty immediately comes to mind for example). There are little things that can be undeniable, uncontestable and objective flaws.
Oh, I agree that flaws can be subjective, but lots of games suffer from poor design choices. Even if you can't measure them like loading times or count them like game freezing bugs, I think we can generally agree things like unnecessary complex menus or unimaginative, linear dungeons are flaws. Not everyone will be bothered by them to the same degree, but that doesn't mean they aren't flaws.
It's not a bad thing to take a good look at what you play once in a while and try to figure out what makes it good and what could have been done better. At the very least it will help you get a better understanding of what you look for in a game.
I agree with 90% of what you said except for:
-"unnecessary complex menus" - The use of the word unecessary is tricky because it might actually be necessary, especially if there are tons of things in the game(RTS's and some other games come to mind), the fact something is "overly complex" is not an actual fact. It might be overly complex for your tastes but not for Richard. In fact Richard might love the complexity of it, for you it might be complexity for complexity sake but for Richard it might be heaven to intrically explore the game's various mechanics/menus and such.
- "unimaginative, linear dungeons are flaws" - Again this is completely subjective, you might think it's unimaginative but once again Richard might not, the fact that something is imaginative depends on your definition of something with imagination behind it, also linear design is not necessarily a bad thing. Some people enjoy straightforward dungeons, I prefer a good balance but I don't think they are inherently bad and again many like the simplicity of something linear or the focused nature of it.
And lastly you assume that people are necessarily bothered by these when they might actually enjoy these aspects. To me something that would be an undeniable flaw would be something along the lines of Framerate problems, game breaking bugs,etc.
The closest game I can think of would be FFX. I don't love it by any means, but I think the battle system is pretty solid, and the art design is fairly cool.The story, on the other hand...
"HA HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA..."
...and I think that quote speaks for itself. It didn't help that Tidus was one of the most whiny POS's I've seen. And so, while I like the game, devoid of it's actual story, the story turns the whole experience into something that I'm not really proud to say I actually like at all.
Generally, if a RPG has mediocre-or-below gameplay, but a good story, I have no problem with liking it. When a game has good gameplay but a meh story, I still have no problem with liking it. But when a game still has good gameplay, but at least has elements of the story that I consider downright insulting, ("HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!) that's when I have a problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8cYou do realize that the "HAHAHAHAHAHA" scene is FORCED LAUGHTER right? It's cringeworthy on purpose, that's the actual intent of the cutscene..Proceeding the forced laughter comes genuine laughter from the characters due to the ridiculousness of the situation. Tidus was trying to lighten up the mood and teach Yuna that life can be full of joy even under serious/horrible circumstances.
And yeah nice analysis there friend "It didn't help that Tidus was one of the most whiny POS's ", very eloquent. -